The baseball season is relatively young but yet it is possible to read or hear many comments regarding a particular club’s need for better hitters, or better pitchers, or players who can run faster. To fill these present or future needs, teams usually do one or more of the following in the hopes of getting a better team:
- Buy a player available in the free agency market
- Recruit or buy more athletic players
- Get better coaching staffs
- Get better minor league players
- Develop more training centers in foreign countries
- Buy better native or foreign players
Carrying out one or more of these actions can prove to be successful for a limited time. The odds are against long-term improvement mainly because these courses of action remain a guessing game. In other words, they will be making educated guesses in relation to the players, based on the information that they have.
It is analogous to betting on the horses. You go to the track, buy the racing form and other materials to learn everything you can about the horses running in a particular race. You study the material and then make an educated guess. Sometimes you guess right and get a nice return on your money. Most often you guess wrong and lose.
In the long run your selections are not winners, although some come close, and you wind up losing more than you win. And so it is with baseball teams. The team may get some excellent players, but in the long run, most of the players do not pan out.
Are these, however, the most effective routes that can be taken? From past experiences the answer is obviously no. But yet, these appears to be the main methods that teams use for improvement. The concept of improving player performance through better skills and physical abilities still escapes them.
Teams do not use the science of improving a player’s performance through improvement of his skills and related physical abilities. We hear words to the effect that they do this, but if anyone investigated, he would find that are are only words, not actions.
For example, there are no ongoing biomechanical analyses of the players’ hitting, throwing or running. Any physical training that is done is usually in the name of preventing injury, not enhancing performance. The teams do not work to improve skill and the physical qualities specifically related to the skill.
This is what I call player development. It means improving the players’ technical and physical abilities using scientifically based training programs. As has been proven many times over, doing this will improve the player’s ability to more successfully carry out his game functions. The knowledge is available; it only needs implementation This is the crux of the problem; one that is continually ignored. Baseball is a classic example of a sport still in the dark ages.
For related information see Build a Better Athlete and Sports: Is It All BS?